Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Behar \ Ethics of our Fathers 4:14 - External Standards

רַבִּי נְהוֹרַאי אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי גוֹלֶה לִמְקוֹם תּוֹרָה וְאַל תֹּאמַר שֶׁהִיא תָבוֹא אַחֲרֶיךָ, שֶׁחֲבֵרֶיךָ יְקַיְּמוּהָ בְיָדֶךָ.
וְאֶל בִּינָתְךָ אַל תִּשָּׁעֵן:

Rabbi Nehorai says: Exile yourself to a place of Torah, and do not say that it will follow after you, that your colleagues will make it yours. Do not rely on your understanding.

The Pele Yoetz discusses the concept of exile in regards to learning Torah in the context of this Mishna. He explains that the rabbis generally encouraged people to remain in their home town because established background is important. However, this was not an iron clad rule and an aphorism from the Talmud was brought which says that among those that cry out and are not answered are people who do badly in one town but do not move to another (see Baba Metsia 75.). In deed if a person wishes to earn the crown of Torah and there is nobody in his locality to teach him, he should then go to a city of sages where there will be people to teach him. Also one should not be concerned about the bother, separation, or expense of moving, because all of them are nothing in comparison to the merit to be gained from knowledge of the Holy One blessed be He. There is also the possibility that being in exile is conducive to learning Torah as is explained in the commentary by Tosfos on the Talmud (Shabbos 9a), that it in the olden days in the land of Israel it was the custom to learn Torah in Babylonia in order to have peace and quiet without aggravation.

The Midrash Raba (Bamidbar 1:5) though goes more to the essence of exile by commenting that the reason that Torah was given in the desert is because a person must make himself as abandoned as a desert to acquire it. Likewise later in Ethics of our Fathers 6:4 it is written that the way of Torah is by eating bread flavored only with salt, drinking only a small amount of water, sleeping on the ground, and even then one must toil. The idea seems to be that is basically through exile and poverty that one acquires the Torah. 

Our Mishna continues that one should not expect that the Torah will chase after him. In addition one will not gain it because they live with people who have acquired it. Rather if a person makes strong efforts on his own he is assured of success as it says in the Talmud (Magila 6:), “If a man says I searched hard but did not find, do not believe him; or I did not search hard but I did find, do not believe him; however if he says I searched hard but did find, then believe him”.

The Mishna ends with an excerpt from a verse in Proverbs (3:5), “Trust in Hashem with all your heart and on your own understanding do not rely”. On this Rashi comments, “spend some money to find yourself a teacher from whom to learn, and do not rely on your own understanding”. The underlying idea is that a person needs external standards and that there are things that one will never get on their own. Because the Torah is all encompassing, if a person masters it, he will always have some sort of a guide. However people cannot accept this idea until they are so empty and confused that they do not know if they are coming or going. As a result when a person feels as abandoned as a desert, this is the time he can fully appreciate the gift of the Torah.



לע"נ ה אמה מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז בנוסן תשנ"ח
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